Improvement in making sewing-machine needles



UNITEDy il STATES' PATENT OFFICE JAMESv r. BLAKE; onwATnnBnnY,oonnnoricnr..

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING sIawINe-IVIACHINF` NEEDLES.

` Speciilculion forming pari oillie'tters Patent No. 36,35, datedSeptember 9, 1862.

To @ZZ whom, it may Concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES I). BLAKE, of Vaterbury, in the county of NewHaven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and usefulImprovement inthe Art of Making Needles for Sewii'Ig-llIachines; and Ido hereby declare' that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription ofthe same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Figure l represents a side elevation of machineryused by' me in practicing my invention. Fig. 2- represents a verticallongitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 represents a plan of the sainewith the up'per roll and portions of the rollstands removed. Fig. 4represents a front elevation `of the rolls an'd stands. Fig. 5represents an elevation of the guide behind the' rolls. Fig. Grepresents views of thc grooves upon an enlarged scale; and Fig.

7 represents views of thcncedlc-wire at dilfen ent stages of itsformation into the needle, upon au enlarged scale.

The larger part of needles for sewing-may chines have shanks of largerdiameter than their bodies, and such needleshave hitherto been formedfrom steel wire of the size of their shanks and of the length-of theneedles by paring off the metal from the surface inward untilb a core isleft of the diameter of the body of the needle; and in practicing thismethod cutting .or grinding tools are used to remove the surplus metalfrom the exterior. This methodis defective for several reasons. In thefirst place, the body ofthe needle is formed out ofthe core of the wire,and, as it is well known that the metal at the core of wire `is alwaysless dense and less tough than the metal near and at 'the surface of thewire, the bod-ies of the needlesl are made 0f that portionof the wirewhich is of the poorest quality. Then, again, a large proportion of themetal is wasted in the manufacture, because the metal oil that portionof the wire which surrounds a core of the size of the body of the needleis eut away in chips or is ground into powder. The method also requiresa large expenditure of hand-labor to keep the cutting-tools in order andattend to their working, and thislabor must necessarily be done byskilled workmen of a high class.

The object of my invention is to make bet.- tcr needles than can be madeby the old method out of the same material and at lower cost; and tothis end ray-invention consists inthe method of making sewingmachineneedles by machinery which elongatcs the portion of the wire which is toform the body of the needle, thus reducing-it in Adiameter and extendingit in length.

B y this improvement the steel near to andat the surface of the wire isworked into the body of the needle instead of being pared off andwasted, so that considerable material is saved, and as this portion ofthe wire is denser and tougher than the core the needles produced are ofbetter quality. Moreover, the attenuation of the ysteel wire by thepeculiar system of rolling whichv I employ in practicing my inventionhast-he eiect of rendering the body of the needle even tougher than theoriginal wire. My method also admits of the .ends of the rolls, whichproject beyond one of the stands B, are fitted with pinious that causethe barrels of the two rolls to' turn in unison. The opposite drivingend of the lower roll, A, is fitted with a cog-wheel, C, whose teethengage in those of a cog-wheel, Cf, secured to a rockshaft, D, to whicha rocking motion is irnparted from a'revolving driving-shaft, D', bymeans of a crank,-E, on the driving-shaft, a crank-arm, F, up'on thelrock-shaft, and a connecting-rod, G, which connects the crahkpins a aof the crank E and crank-arm F. The crank-arm of the rock-shaftv D is oflonger radius than the crank of the driving-shaft D',

hence the rotation of the latter inipartsa rock'- ing motion to therock-shaft, and this latter, by means of the two cog-wheels C G',con1`municates a corresponding alternating move-.v ment to the two rolls A A:.By reason of this alternating movement the rolls turn` 'falft'er...\`nately in opposite'directions, and,asthe:move-,1` ment isimparted by acrank',thcir barrels at they, 4end of each movente tarebrought'gradually.

f 1;, v:16.391 t i rest before they commence to tu rn in the ppositedirection. y

The rols-representedin. the drawings conin nine grooves, six of whichare used for reucing the metal to the required size and th'ree` )rgiving the reduced' metal the vcylindrical )rm of thexhl'ody'of theneedle. The forms of hese grooves are represented on an enlarged cale atFig. 6, The redncingfgrooves are alernately flat and Octagon. The officeofthe rst groove, e', is to flatten the wire on lits oplosite sides.lThe flattened wire from the first roove is subjected cdgewise totheaction of he second groove, e", which transforms the.

attened portion into an octagonal prism,

longating' it in length in proportion to its derease in cross-section.The octagonal prism rom the second groove is attenedby the acion of ,thethird groove, e, and elongated. The attened piece from thel third grooveis ubjected edgewise to the fourth groove,-e,

nd is transformed thereby into an octagonal rismwith a correspondingelongation. VThe ctagonal prism from the fourth groove is flatened bythe fifth, e5, and is again transformed nto an octgonal prism by thesixth groove, l, each change in cross-sectionbeing attended ith acorresponding elongation, The Octagolal prism produced by any one of thethree ctagonal grooves can be rounded and finished y subjectingV ittwice to the action of one of Jnd to make the shoulder (or that partof'v hc needle which connects the body and shank) f conical form. Thisis effected by cutting the ;rooves deeper at the parts of' therollswhich ire opposite to each other at the time they :ome to rest previousto turning in the direcion of the arrows in the drawings, Fig. 2and )ycombining a series of gages, i, with the rolls o determine the positionof the steel wire vhen the rolls begin to act upon it. These gagesconsist of a series. of rods, 'z' i, supported pposite the grooves ofthe ro'lls by a rest, H. lhe gages pass through openings in the rest mdare inadelfast therein by set-screws o, so that they can. be adjustedwith their ends at my. desired distances from the centers of the 1olls.rIhe gages are so set that when the wire zaken from any preceding grooveof the rolls s inserted into a' succeeding groove the part )f the wirewhich is to form the shoulder of i,he needle will be in the right'position to be icted upon by the shouldering-space of the groove whenthe end of the wire-is in contact with the adjacent end of the gage at'the time he rolls begin to bite upon the wire, and in )rder that theshoulder of the needle may be if conical forni the portions of thegrooves which connect the rdeepest parts with the -remainder are taperedinto each other instead of meeting abruptly. 'f

A rest, I, having a series of shallow grooves corresponding in positionand height with the flines in which .the wire is` to be inserted bel ttween the rolls, is placed in front of them to enable the attendant toinsert the wire readily,

and in order that the Wirefrom the flatteninggrooves may be held withcertainty edgewise when the octagonal grooves are to act upon it, aguide-plate, J,is supported behind the rolls with a dat guide-groove, c,in it opposite each octagonal groove ofthe right size to receive thetlattened wire 'of the preceding iiatteninggroove when it isinsertededgewise into it. ,4 In order that the attendant when inserting the Wirebetween the rolls may place its end in contact with the proper gage withcertainty, I apply to each4 gage tubular case, whose end extends up tothe guide-plate J', and is madel` funnel shaped, so as to permit thefree entrance of the end of the wire inserted between the rolls.

In manufacturing' sewingmachine needles with this machinery steel wireis selected of the size of the shanhs. The driving-shaft 17) is causedto'revolve continuously by power, and in consequence thereof the, rollsturn alternately to and fro. The attendantsta/nding in front of therolls inserts the endsfoflthe wire through the enlarged parts of thefirst grooveat the time the rolls. come to rest previous to turning inthe direct-ion of the arrows in Fig. 2, and pushes the wire through the.

rolls until its end strikes'the gage for that groove. Then, as Itherolls turn in the direction of the arrows, the shallow portions of thegroove bite upon the wire and roll it toward the attendant, at the sametime flattening it and elongating it. The attendant turns the lwireone-quarter round and inserts it in the second groove, when the. rollsagain come t rest, as before, taking' care that the end of the attenedportion is in contact with the gage and that, the flattened portion 'isin the groove of the guide J, so that the wire is snbjeted edgewise tothe octagonal groove.

When the end of the flattened portion is in contact with the gage,the'shoulder partially formed at the first operation is in the properposition at the time the rolls again bite upon the metal and roll ittoward the attendant.- The wire is submitted in this manner successivelyand alternately to dat and octagonal grooves until it is sufficientlyreduced in size, when it Vis-iinished by the proper round groove, asbefore stated. Each successive action ofthe rolls reducesthecross-section of the wire that is to forni the body ofthe needle andelongatesit in length,- while the shank, being unaffected, re--t-ains'its size, and the-- shoulder, being acted upon by the taperingportions of the grooves,

receives a conical form. The-various changes' in forni which the metalundergoes by these operations are shown on an enlarged scale atA Fig. 7,from 4which it will be seen that nd is wasted in the process, but thatthe whole ofthe body of the needle is elongated out of a short portion,hh', of the original wire. Not only is there no loss, but the surfacemetal of the original Wire is incorporated into thebody of the needle,sothat the toughness and density of the surface metal of the wire areretained in theueedle. Moreovergasthesuecessive grooves hug the metaltightly and prevent its spread laterally while itisextended in length,it is -rendered even denser than the original wire,

and I have found by trial that the steel is im'- proved by theoperation. If the steel should be toohard-tempered to. permit ofthecontinuous formation of the needles, it should be `annealed ,whicl1 maybe done in the usual manner and at the discretion of the manufacturer.If

the shank is to be otas small diameter as the first octagonal groove,wire of suitable size is selectedvand subjected firstt-o the second datgroove. If drawn wire of suitable size for this purpose is not at hand,wire of a larger size may be obtained and reduced in size previous tosubjecting it to' the body-forming rolls by subjecting it to the actionof grooved rol1 ers revolving continuously in one direction,

i ing a Ysuilcient number of grooves arranged in regular order to reduceand nish the bodies of the needles,but itis obviousthat the groovesmaybe arranged in any order,'and that 'two or more pairs of rolls mightbe used,each pair containing aportion ofthe grooves required;y

and then the same mode of operation could be practiced by subjectingthewire in succession to those grooves of the several pairs 'of rollswhich properly succeeded each other in size and form. It is also obviousthat the rolls'in y stead of turning alternately in differentdirections, might be arranged to turn continuously in the directions ofthe arrows in Fig. 2, provided the enlarged portions of the .grooveswere extended'snieiently round the'rolls to permit the introduction ofthe Wire through the grooves and its proj ection against the gagesbefore the shallow port-ions of the4 grooves began to act upon it; butthere must always be a sufficient length ofthe shallow portion of eachgroove to act upon the length'of Wire which is submitted to it.,i Thebodies of the needles formed by my machinery may be pointed, groo'ved,and drilled in the usual manner.

- y .I do not in this patent claim the novel parts ot my machinery, asthese formthe subjeetmatter of another'patent; but

What I claim herein as my invention, and desire to secure by'LettersPatent, is

.The method of making sewing-machine needles by machinery whichelongates the por. tion of the wire whichl is to form the body of theneedle, thus reducing it in ldiameter and extending it in length,substantially as vdescribed.

In test1 mony whereof I have hereunto sub-l scribed luy-name. t

JAMEs P. BLAKE.

Witnesses: V

W. L. BENNEM, E. S. RENWICK.

